{"id":201977,"date":"2025-11-26T22:58:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T22:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/201977\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T22:58:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T22:58:09","slug":"children-watched-charlie-kirks-death-online-and-see-pornography-daily-committee-told-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/201977\/","title":{"rendered":"Children watched Charlie Kirk\u2019s death online and see pornography daily, committee told \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Irish children as young as 10 watched footage of US conservative influencer<\/a> Charlie Kirk<\/a> being shot dead in September, the Joint Oireachtas<\/a> Committee on Media has been told.<\/p>\n

During a hearing on Wednesday, a number of TDs and Senators raised concerns about the type of content many children are viewing online<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Fine Gael<\/a> TD Keira Keogh was critical of the fact that many social media<\/a> platforms do not seem to enforce robust age verification processes. <\/p>\n

\u201cChildren\u2019s right to safety is not being protected,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us here know that so many children under the age of 16, definitely, even under the age of 13, witnessed Charlie Kirk\u2019s murder coming up on their \u2018For You\u2019 page.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Keogh said before the footage of Mr Kirk\u2019s killing was widely shared, many parents \u201cdidn\u2019t know what their kids were looking at online\u201d. <\/p>\n

She added that \u201ckids as young as eight or nine are seeing pornography, violent pornography, on a daily basis\u201d.<\/p>\n

A \u201cFor You\u201d page on social media suggests content a user may be interested in viewing. It is typically based on a person\u2019s algorithm \u2013 content they have already engaged with \u2013 but often also includes content that is trending at any given time.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0How can we keep our kids safe online? Here are some tips for parentsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Fianna F\u00e1il<\/a> TD Peter \u2018Chap\u2019 Cleere said his children showed him the Charlie Kirk shooting video.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy daughter\u2019s 10 years of age. She has TikTok<\/a>, and I know all of her friends have TikTok. Now, maybe that\u2019s a failure of me as a parent, but that\u2019s the reality of the situation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Tr\u00edona Quill, assistant secretary in the media and broadcasting division of the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport<\/a>, told the committee that \u201crobust age verification\u201d on such sites is \u201ca basic requirement\u201d. <\/p>\n

She said officials in the Department were working with the Government\u2019s chief information officer and his office \u201cto look at practical technical solutions to age verification\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe online safety code requires platforms to have robust age verification in place to protect children from content that is inappropriate for children, such as pornography.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Quill said that, in terms of encountering content online, \u201calgorithms and recommender systems can have harmful impacts on users, especially children\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Irish regulators take aim at Big Tech, but how will the online safety code be implemented?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Niamh Hodnett, online safety commissioner at Coimisi\u00fan na Me\u00e1n<\/a>, said all platforms \u201chave to protect the safety, security and privacy of children online\u201d. <\/p>\n

Ms Hodnett said specific obligations exist for video-sharing platforms to restrict content that is dangerous, violent or inappropriate. <\/p>\n

\u201cPlatforms that allow adult content, such as pornography and extreme violence, must put in place effective age assurance to ensure that children cannot see this content,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Irish children as young as 10 watched footage of US conservative influencer Charlie Kirk being shot dead in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,41120,34888,111396,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,4766,1114,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-201977","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-charlie-kirk","11":"tag-coimisiun-na-mean","12":"tag-department-of-communications","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-oireachtas","22":"tag-social-media","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories","25":"tag-world","26":"tag-world-news","27":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115618480345288975","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}